Chorizo con Huevo
by mkh2
Summary: Ever heard of the game Chorizo con Huevo? Kagome brings her newly found knowledge of this game to the Sengoku Jidai, where she runs into some trouble with her friends due to this game and… Well, you’ll see.
1. Chorizo con Huevo! – or…

Chorizo con Huevo!

* * *

an Inuyasha fanfiction

by

mkh2

* * *

Disclaimer: I am quite certain that if I were the author of Inuyasha I would not be putting out any ideas for my work on I'd instead turn it into a manga and make you shell out a whole lotta bucks for my stuff. However, I'm not, therefore here we go…

* * *

_Ever heard of the game Chorizo con Huevo? Every time somebody asks you a question you have to answer with the word Chorizo con Huevo, no matter how silly a question, and with the most serious face you can muster. The first person to smile or laugh while saying the answer loses. Over the years there have been many new incarnations, recently including one rather embarrassing answer…_

* * *

"Chorizo con Huevo!"

or

The Wrath of a Slighted Fox-Demon

* * *

"_Chorizo con huevo_," Mikki said, a bored expression on her face while flipping through the JPop magazine.

"Okay, okay, okay, how about… What did you do to… _my_ dog last night?" Kagome grinned, leaning forward.

Mikki put down the magazine, looked Kagome straight in the eye and said….

"_Chorizo con Huevo_."

Kagome fell off the bed laughing.

"You know, Kagome, not only did you ask me five variations of that question already, but we still need to work on that English assignment," Mikki rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly.

Kagome pouted. "But I thought that was English."

"That's Spanish. I suggested '_In my pants_' but you turned bright red on the first word," Mikki grinned, reaching for the English book that sat precariously on the edge of the bed.

"That's icky!" squeaked Kagome.

"Not necessarily," sighed Mikki, flipping through the English book. "'Hey, where is the ice cream?' '_In my pants_.' 'Do you have any fives?' '_In my pants_.' 'Donde esta el baño?' '_In my pants_.' 'Do you have any grey poupon?' …Well, okay, that one is kinda gross." Mikki wrinkled her nose as a memory of one of Tippy's jokes floated to mind. "Yech… and that convo she had with her buddy. 'Depends on the consistency of…' Double yech!"

Kagome blinked. "Ahh."

Mikki blinked back. "Ahh." She handed the book to Kagome. "Beee… Ceeee…"

* * *

"Hey, Inuyasha, I have this great game to show you!" Kagome grinned up at Inuyasha while she packed her bag.

Inuyasha grunted. "Oh, yeah? What is it?"

"_Chorizo con huevo_," Kagome answered promptly.

"Cho-lee what?" Inuyasha blinked in surprise.

"The name of the game is '_Chorizo con Huevo_,'" smiled Kagome. "Mikki taught me. You see—"

"Ah, lawrd, heah we go," Inuyasha flopped back dramatically onto her bed.

"What?"

"What?"

"Never mind, I don't want to know. Anyway!" Kagome clapped her hands together. "You see, one person asks the other person a question and whatever they ask has to be answered by the other person with '_Chorizo con huevo_.' They go back and forth and the first person to smile or laugh loses. Here's one: what did you do to my cat last night?"

"_Cho_li_zo con huevo_," Inuyasha deadpanned, his tongue working around the word.1 "What does that mean anyway?"

"Um… it means, sausage and egg," Kagome blinked. She zipped her bag. "Done packing– and I've got extra ramen too."

"Is it a sort of breakfast food?" Inuyasha picked up the bag, pulling it over his shoulder.

"Mikki said 'Depends – not necessarily,'" Kagome grabbed the smaller (but not much smaller) bag of ramen.

"What's that mean?" Inuyasha reached and picked the bag out of her arms.

"I have no idea."

* * *

"What does that mean?"

"It means, uh, it means… it doesn't matter what it means! It sounds, funny, doesn't it? And, seriously, I think that's the whole point."

"So, instead of saying '_Chorizo con huevo_' I could say '_In my _pan-tsu'?" Inuyasha blinked over at the girl, ignoring the leaf that fluttered into his view. "'Where is the _tama_?' '_In my _pan-tsu.'" Inuyasha grinned at the phrase. "Sounds weird."

"Yea- yeah," Kagome turned pink. "And it's '_pants_.'"

"Pan-tsu. Pan-tsu. Pa-a-a-a-an-ts-s-s-s-suu. Pan-tsssss. Pan-ts. _Pants_. _Pants_. _In my pan-ts_," Inuyasha sounded it out, trying to resist adding the soft 'u' sound at the end of the word.

"Right. _In your pants_. Seriously, though, I think we should stick with _Chorizo con Huevo_. After all, it _is_ easier to say." Kagome nodded her head as though agreeing with herself. "Mm-hm, mm-hm, Mm-hm."

"Aw, but where is the challenge in that? I'll say '_In my pants_' and you say '_Chorizo con Huevo'_ if you want." Inuyasha nodded proudly at the compromise he had just come up with. "Now we have another game besides _Janken_ to play. It's been getting hard to think of new words to skip to."

"_Mo_, but I _like_ that game," Kagome squinted at Inuyasha from the corner of her eyes.

"Course you do – you always win," Inuyasha grumbled. He shifted her backpack along his shoulders. It was a little heavier than usual – hopefully that meant more ramen instead of more books.

"A little heavy, ne?" Kagome glanced at him as she skipped over a stick.

"Nah, not really," Inuyasha denied, not that he would admit that it _was_ rather heavy and that the straps were beginning to dig into his shoulders.

"Oh, okay, good," Kagome nodded. "I had put in some extra ramen and chocolate and hoped it didn't add too much weight."

"Hn," Inuyasha tried not to look too excited. He was gonna pig out tonight!

Kagome grinned slightly – his ears had perked up considerably at the mention of the extra food. Ten cent salty noodles – who would've figured that the big, bad hanyou had such a yen for them?

The two walked on in a comfortable silence, broken by occasional questions and "_chorizo con huevo_" or "_in my pants_" answers, Inuyasha trying hard not to laugh and lose because every time he answered Kagome would go slightly pink.

"Hey, where are the guys?" Kagome suddenly asked, looking around.

"_In my pan_ – uh, I mean, not too far from here – we just go over this hill, and then follow the river west for a bit and we should come to the clearing they are camped at," Inuyasha stated. "Why? Tired?"

"No!" Kagome pouted slightly. Well, okay, she _was_ tired but she wasn't the one carrying the heavy backpack and she didn't want to make herself seem too weak.

"Oh, then are you–" Inuyasha broke off, ears swiveling around alert and stared through the trees and bushes along the paths behind Kagome.

Kagome went quiet. She had noticed that Inuyasha seemed to have sensed or heard something and she wanted to make sure he could hear it well enough to know whether it was dangerous or not.

Inuyasha stepped forward and hesitated. Kagome touched a hand to his arm near the elbow and looked at him in confusion.

"I think… a cry?" Inuyasha murmured. He glanced and Kagome and wordlessly the both of them entered the woods.

* * *

"Ah, there – you see the small pile of cloth?" Inuyasha whispered.

"Do you smell anything unusual? Is it a human or…" Kagome trailed off and looked up at him from where they both crouched in the bushes.

"Well, it _seems_ human but…" Inuyasha frowned. He was having a hard time picking up the scent, like something was obscuring it, making it hard to tell the difference between its scent and its surroundings.

"So that was what was making the sound?" she asked lowly.

"Think so."

"Okay!" Kagome shot to her feet and strode through the bushes, leaving a gaping Inuyasha to stare after her for about three seconds before shooting off after her.

"Hey, what are you – what if it's dangerous?" Inuyasha hissed into her ear.

"Baka – didn't you say it was human? And look at the size – it has to be a child? Children aren't dangerous!" Kagome snapped at him as they drew closer to the little figure.

"But, but," Inuyasha spluttered. After all, maybe that was true in her time, and often enough in his time, but it wasn't necessarily always true; there were plenty of dangerous kids – hey, think of Kohaku!

"Hey, kid, are you alright?" Kagome crouched down next to the unmoving figure.

"Mm?" the cloth moved around until a dark head popped out, tearful eyes looking blearily up at Kagome. "Ah?" the parched lips parted softly, trembling.

"Hey, we're not going to hurt you, right Inuyasha?"

"Feh!" Inuyasha stomped back to the bushes to pick up the backpack he had left there.

"Ignore him – he's not good with emotions. Anyway, are you hurt anywhere? Where are your parents? What's your name?" Kagome rambled at the child who blinked a few more times at her.

"Slow down, Kagome, I think you're overwhelming him," Inuyasha dumped the bag next to her and crouched behind it. "Hey kid, where's your village?" The child's face crumpled and he buried his face into his hands, silent sobs wracking his tiny frame.

"Whoa, whoa!" Inuyasha looked taken aback, ears flattening to his head as he stared in shock at the distressed child. "What did I do?"

"Inuyasha, you didn't do anything," Kagome shook her head at him and pulled the tiny child out of the pile of scrap cloth and into her arms. "It's okay, take your time, we aren't going to hurt you," she murmured at him. Suddenly she hit on an idea and, fiddling with the latch on her backpack, opened it to reveal the large quantities of junk food piled on top of her other supplies. She pulled out a chocolate bar.

"Here, are you hungry? Everything's better with chocolate you know," she waved the bar temptingly under the boy's nose.

The little boy's nose, the only part of his face not covered by his hands, twitched, and his fingers spread out to look at the bar of chocolate. Seemingly pausing to think for a moment, he reached out and grabbed the bar of chocolate, fingers tremulously sliding over the paper and aluminum foil, before ripping it off and shoving the bar at his face.

"Hrmf, urmf, hurmf," the boy eagerly sounded as he scarfed it down.

"Wow, you really were hungry," Kagome's eyes widened. She dug into her backpack and pulled out another bar. "Here, kid, have another." The boy paused in mid bite then quickly grabbed the proffered candy to his chest, shoving it down his shirt. He finished of the first bar and licked at his fingers and lips, looking somewhat warily at Inuyasha and Kagome.

"Better, yeah?" asked Kagome. The boy tentatively nodded. "What's your name kid.

"Dai- Daichi," he murmured softly, dark wet eyes looking up at Kagome sadly.

"Where's your family?" she asked.

"Guh-gone," his face crumpled and his head dropped into his hands once more, shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, sharing a concerned look with Inuyasha.

"A fierce, a fearsome demon, tricked the villagers, everyone fooled! No- there's no one left," the boy whispered out of his hands.

"Why? What happened?" Kagome gasped.

The boy's head rose slightly as he began to breathe out his frightened tale.

"_Long ago, at least for me, the villagers had made a pact with a great kitsune youkai, whose tails numbered seven, who had lived to their north in the mountains. The villagers had chosen a spot at the foot of the mountains, seeking protection from bandits and evil youkai that would pass by. In exchange, the villagers needed to provide a friend for his firstborn son, who was exceedingly lonely as there was no one for him to play with. The villagers eagerly complied and took the orphaned son of a recently departed fisherman and his wife who died of heartbreak not long after._

_The boy was hailed as their hero, at first, and the boy lived happily, playing with his dear friend, the young kitsune, and being admired for his bravery for consorting with this demon._

…_But, eventually, as things always do, the heart of man blackened, and they turned on the boy. They were jealous of the many favors given to the boy by his kitsune friend, who loved him so dearly as a brother, and one day, when the boy was making his walk to the glade at the foot of the mountain where he would meet with the demon, a great number of the villagers came together and savagely and brutally murdered the boy._

_The son of the five-tailed kitsune came upon the body of his friend thusly, and he ran screaming for his father. This stirred up the fox demon's wrath and he bore down on the villager in a whirlwind of fire and destroyed everything in his path. There's nothing left, nothing at all…_

"And I'm all that's left." The boy wiped his dirty sleeve over his face. "And I'm all alone."

"Bad luck," mumbled Kagome, her eyes looking off into the distance.

Inuyasha frowned at the sky. "So, should we go fight this demon?"

The boy's eyes widened in alarm. "Oh, no, you mustn't. The great kitsune had only overreacted a little bit, and had forgotten how strong he was, and how powerful his fire was, and weak we humans were, when he ran down to confront the villagers. He hadn't meant to destroy everything – it just happened."

"Wait, so, he accidentally destroyed the village?" Kagome blinked in confusion.

"Yes, it was an accident. But, but, it was horrible, all the fire, and the screaming. A few villagers managed to run away when they had seen it coming, but they never stopped running and are gone. A few other villagers had gone on a journey to get supplies and have yet to return. I'm staying here, to wait for my father."

"But, what if they run into the other villagers on their way here?"

"Doubtful – the villagers ran in the opposite direction of the way the others have to come," the boy wiped his eyes and stood up straight, his small chin trembling as he tried to pull himself together. "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

"Right," sniffed Inuyasha. "A small kid like you? I had it hard enough back when I was a shorty like you, and _I'm_ a powerful _hanyou_."

The boy started to glare at Inuyasha when Kagome cut in. "What Inuyasha is trying to say is, it's not a good idea to be alone. You might think you can take care of yourself, and you might be right, but it might be a better idea to come along with us. Why, back at camp, we even have an orphaned kitsune, even smaller than you, who we take care of. You could play together, or…"

"No! My mind is made up! I'm staying here," the boy sat down proudly on the ground again, a few dead leaves crackling under him. "If Father takes too long in getting back, I'll go myself, but it isn't time yet."

Inuyasha and Kagome exchanged glances before the both of them straightened up again.

"Well, if you say so, but here," Kagome pulled out some chips and a couple of granola bars, "we can give you this…"

"Hey," squawked Inuyasha, "those are my favorite chips!"

"Shh, Inuyasha, we can always get some more later," she poked him in the side. "Daichi-chan…"

"Not –_chan!_"

"Daichi-kun, don't forget to burn the wrappers when you're done – otherwise you'll attract some nasty bugs and animals, and the wrappers will never go away, okay?" Kagome waved slightly at the boy and turned to leave with Inuyasha when the boy called to them.

"My, my father, he will be a while in coming, so… will you play with me?"

End Part One

* * *

1Why does Inuyasha pick up the word so easily? It's because of the similarities in pronunciation of certain sounds and words between the English and Japanese language. After all one of the biggest differences in the pronunciation is the 'r' – it'd come off sounding like a cross between the 'l' and the 'r'. So, depending on how harsh sounding he can make it sound, it would sound either like "cho_ri_zo" or "cho_li_zo."

--

_Daichi_ can mean either "great first son" or "great land" in Japanese.

_Chorizo con huevo_ and _In my pants_ are in italics because they are not speaking Japanese.


	2. The Wrath of a Slighted Fox Demon

Chorizo con Huevo!

* * *

an Inuyasha fanfiction

by

mkh2

* * *

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, I would not be writing on Oh, no, I'd be scrawling all over hundreds of sheets of paper, and my hands would be black from all the ink I smudged (I always smudge the ink). Since my hands are clean (if slightly banged up – hazards of working with kids, after all) I suppose that means I don't own Inuyasha.

* * *

Ever heard of the game Chorizo con Huevo? Every time somebody asks you a question you have to answer with the word Chorizo con Huevo, no matter how silly a question, and with the most serious face you can muster. The first person to smile or laugh while saying the answer loses.

Kagome brings her newly found knowledge of this game to the Sengoku Jidai, where she runs into some trouble with her friends due to this game and… Well, you'll see.

* * *

"Chorizo con Huevo!"

or

The Wrath of a Slighted Fox-Demon

* * *

"_My, my father, he will be a while in coming, so… will you play with me?"_

* * *

The sun was sinking into the horizon beyond the trees. The animals of the day began to settle down for the night and the nocturnal ones were just stirring. A merry little fire was crackling away as numerous amounts of wrappers crumpled under the heat of the flame and empty cups of ramen were stacked neatly in a used plastic shopping bag to be thrown away in the time from which the lone girl of the gathered trio hailed. Said girl was currently red in the face.

"Cheh- chuh- _chorizo con hue_heheheeheehee," the girl burst out laughing, flopping over onto her side and breathing raggedly. "I can't- I can't- I can't take it anymore!"

"Keh, you lose again, Kagome," sighed Inuyasha as he slurped up the last of the broth from his third cup and stacked it neatly in the others. He looked at the sky, a dark blue with clouds tinged pink and purple-blue-black. Yawning, he stood up and stretched. "It's really late. We need to meet up with the others."

Kagome frowned slightly from the small heap she had crumpled into. "Really? Oh, you're right." She stood up and looked down at the boy, Daichi, who had just been smiling until this turn of events. "So, are you sure you don't want to come with us, Daichi-cha-kun?"

"Why can't you stay here and play with me some more?" he countered, pouting slightly.

"We can't stay – we have too many responsibilities. Besides, we can't turn our backs on our friends." Kagome started picking up her stuff and putting it into her backpack.

The boy continued to pout. Sighing, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's backpack and pulled out some chips to give to the boy. "Here kid. Take care of yourself, okay?" He grabbed the rest of the items, shoved it in, zipped it up, and tossed it onto his back. "Come on, Kagome – the others are probably wondering where we are."

"Right Inuyasha," Kagome nodded. She turned to Daichi worriedly, "Well, if you're sure, we can't make you come. Look on the bright side; at least you have some food, and you've learned a new game to show your dad." With that, Kagome turned and followed Inuyasha, who was already at the edge of the clearing.

"Hey, wait up!" she chirped, falling in step with him. She smiled up at Inuyasha. "Those were your favorite chips, Inuyasha. That was nice of you."

"Keh!"

Back at the small camp, Daichi looked quietly at the bag of chips in his hands.

"I'm all alone again," he murmured softly, his eyes looking at the small gift of food they had left with him.

Pow! The bag popped violently, scattering chips and bits of the wrapper everywhere. The boy looked up, a nasty, crazed smirk on his face and the fire flickered and died.

"That's right, I have a new game to play," he sneered, his voice higher and colder than it had been. His eyes, glowing a vicious yellow, were the only light to be seen in the sudden dark of the woods.

* * *

Kagome and Inuyasha quietly made their way through the forest to the others, not noticing as a soft gray mist seemed to overtake their feet and slowly glide up their bodies, slowly getting lighter in color and enveloping them before dispersing. They ignored the soft chill than ran through their bodies, figuring it was simply the cool night air, as it had been colder earlier lately.

Entering the camp, they noticed a fire had already been made and several plump fish were currently roasting over it. Shippou was nestled in Kirara's furry tails and Miroku and Sango were quietly whispering so as not to rouse the tiny kitsune.

Sango smiled at Kagome and leaning over, whispered, "Did you do well on your tests?"

Kagome smiled brightly back at her, replying, "_Chorizo con huevo_."

Sango's smile faltered, blinking in surprise, "Wha- huh?"

"Kagome-sama," Miroku started, "Are you feeling alright?"

Looking at him in confusion, Kagome replied, "_Chorizo con huevo_."

"Kagome, stop saying _chorizo con huevo_ – we aren't playing that game right now," sighed Inuyasha.

"But, I haven't been saying _chorizo con huevo_," countered Kagome, brow wrinkling in confusion. "Sango asked me how the test went and I said it went really well. What did you think I said?"

"_In my pants_," frowned Inuyasha.

"Wha- what?" Kagome blinked. "Inuyasha, you just said '_In my pants_.'"

"No I didn't, I said I heard you say '_chorizo con huevo_.'"

Sango and Miroku shared glances and then Miroku said, "Okay, everyone, I'm sure it's been a long day for us all so let's just eat and go to sleep, okay? We've got to get an early start tomorrow."

Nodding in acquiescence, they removed the fish from the fire and tucked in before Kagome unfurled her sleeping bag and they all went to sleep, Miroku a little closer to Sango than usual. Shippou got up from where he was sleeping toddled over to Kagome, and curled up in her arms, all while asleep. All was quiet in the campsite.

* * *

Earlier than usual, Kagome woke up and got out of her sleeping bag, being careful not to disturb Shippou, so sighed softly and turned over, curling into an even tinier ball of fluff. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out her toiletries. Inuyasha stirred at this, and leaned out over the branch, the rustle of leaves giving away his wakeful state.

"Inuyasha," hissed Kagome, leaning back to see if she could see him, "I'm going to go freshen up. If Miroku wakes up, don't let him head to the hot springs. I'll be back in a bit."

"Alright," came the quiet reply before the rustling stopped.

A while later Sango woke up and, seeing her proximity to Miroku, who seemed to have a death grip on his sakujo and was muttering about evil baboons stealing his onigiri, skittered backwards enough to safely get up without waking the sleeping houshi. She quietly looked around the camp and, seeing the rather deflated sleeping bag that held one tiny kitsune, she turned her head to the trees, where she was certain Inuyasha was awake by now.

"Inuyasha," she called softly. "Where's Kagome."

"_In my pants_," came the quiet reply.

"What?" blinked Sango. "I don't think I heard you right. What did you say?"

"_In my pants_," came the slightly louder reply.

Sango stared in disbelief before calling out again, "Inuyasha, come down here, please."

"Keh." Inuyasha dropped down and landed soundlessly in front of her, arms tucked in his sleeves as he stared somewhat suspiciously at her.

"Inuyasha, I'm going to ask you again, 'where is Kagome?" Sango stared at him.

"_In my pants_," he paused and looked at her, a look of confusion starting to spread on his face.

"Where is she?"

"_In my pants!_"

"Where? Where? Where?"

"_In my pants! In my pants! In my pants!_"

When Kagome reentered the camp, she found Inuyasha on the ground, a big bump on his head, while Sango stood angrily over him, wielding the Hiraikotsu, while the others, having been woken up by their screaming contest, looked on wide-eyed.

"For the last time, where is – Kagome! There you are!" Sango looked up at her with relief.

"Right. Here I am," Kagome stared with mild surprise when Inuyasha suddenly dashed to crouch behind her legs. What's going on?"

Sango frowned. "It's the oddest thing- I kept asking Inuyasha where you were and he wouldn't answer, he just kept saying '_Iin my pan-tsu_.'"

Kagome flushed as Inuyasha butted in. "That's not true! I kept saying that she was taking a bath at the hot springs but you wouldn't listen to me!"

"Are you saying I'm lying?" snapped Sango, being held back from going after Inuyasha by Miroku, who had walked over with Shippou and Kirara perched on each shoulder.

"Calm down, please," Kagome put her hands in the air placatingly. "Inuyasha, are you sure you said what you said?"

Inuyasha squawked "_In my pants!_" with a rather hurt look on his face.

Kagome frowned and crouched next to him.

"Inuyasha, do you know what you just said?" Kagome asked thoughtfully.

"_In… my… pants?_" Inuyasha slowly said, nervously, shifting slightly to look at her.

Kagome stared thoughtfully at him before standing up and barking out, "Somebody! Ask me a question!"

"What color is your underwear?" Miroku cheerfully called out, before he was bopped on the head by Sango.

"_Chorizo con huevo!_" shrieked Kagome.

"Say that again," started Sango, staring in surprise at Kagome's outburst.

"Yeah," Inuyasha blinked. "You just said '_chorizo con huevo_.'"

"No," said Kagome slowly, a calculating expression on her face. "I said 'None of your business.'"

The group exchanged nervous glances with each other.

* * *

"Now, Kagome-sama, please repeat what you just said," Miroku carefully stated as the group trampled through the bramble trying to find the spot where Inuyasha and Kagome had met with the kid the other day.

Kagome sighed, rubbing her eyes. Her bath in the hot spring that morning seemed so long ago.

"What I said was that this little boy, maybe ten, eleven years old, has something to do with the kitsune youkai who live in the mountains – maybe they invoked a curse or something."

"Kitsune are notorious tricksters," Sango nodded, glancing sidelong at Shippou, who was currently perched precariously on Miroku's shoulder and staring worriedly up ahead at Inuyasha and Kagome.

"He did smell kind of off," muttered Inuyasha.

"Yes? How so?" asked Miroku before he could stop himself.

"_In my pants_," sighed Inuyasha, glancing back at Miroku.

"Sorry," Miroku said, sounding not very sorry at all. "Please repeat what you said."

"The problem is, I had a hard time smelling anything properly – the whole area reeked of kitsune and old fire. I thought the general scent of the area was throwing my sense of smell off," Inuyasha grumbled.

"He had a rather funny way of speaking," Kagome frowned. "Kind of like an old man. I thought it was just the trauma of having seen the slaughter of his village, however accidental. Also, he was rather insistent that we not go after the kitsune."

"I guess the only thing we can do is find the boy and see what the big idea is," sighed Sango, shifting her Hiraikotsu tiredly. "The problem is, the area where you were might've been an illusion, so this could definitely make things more difficult."

Kagome glanced over at Inuyasha, whose ears were perked up straining to hear any tiny sound in the forest. She dropped back until she was shoulder to shoulder with Miroku, who paid no attention to her as she started to speak.

"Hey Shippou, are you alright?"

"Yes, Kagome," murmured Shippou, eyes staring fixedly at the ground in front of Miroku.

"It's not your fault, you know," Kagome whispered.

Shippou turned watery eyes to Kagome. "Kagome!" he cried, leaping into her arms. He sniffled softly. "It was a kitsune, though."

"Who knows if it really is a kitsune who did this though? Besides, if it was, maybe it's best to find out why before jumping to conclusions, hm?" Kagome sighed gently, carefully stroking the tiny kitsune's back and running her fingers through his hair. "Anyways, it's not the worst curse we could have had, right? Why, he could have turned us all into flying sheep!"

Shippou giggled softly, burrowing his face into her neck. "Or singing tone-deaf rabbits."

"Or worse," joined in Sango, leaning over. "They could've been turned into _houshi-sama_."

"I take offense to that," Miroku stated haughtily, his eyebrows disappearing beneath his bangs. "_I_ am a _houshi_."

Inuyasha simply snorted at their talk. "Keh."

* * *

"So, you think it was right around here, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked.

Kagome bit her lip and nodded shortly, her eyes looking around the tiny clearing. Sango walked over to the used fire pit, using a short stick to stir it up. She picked up a tiny piece of slightly concave cardboard wrapper.

"Houshi-sama, look familiar?" Sango lifted it up higher so he could get a look at it.

Miroku's eyes widened before he turned pouting to Kagome and pointed at the scrap. "_In my pants!_"

Kagome and the others blinked their eyes twice. "Er, Miroku," Kagome paused thoughtfully, "Please, um, say that again. I didn't quite catch it."

"I wanted to know why you didn't tell me you had brought strawberry pocky. You know it's my favorite," Miroku frowned. He looked curiously at her. "Do you have anymore?"

"Oh…" Kagome let out a shaky breath. "It's just, I thought you said '_In my pants_.' Sango, didn't you hear that?" she turned, her eyes narrowing slightly at Sango.

Sango nodded. "_Chorizo con huevo_."

Miroku took a step back, alarmed. "No… now you said… well, you said '_cho_li_zo con huevo_."

Sango's eyes widened and the three looked around at each other. Inuyasha looked back over his shoulder at them from where he was crouched, trying to pick up the scent, mouth open wide.

"Oh no!" wailed Shippou. "It's catching!" And he burst into tears.

* * *

The Inu-tachi was now dashing through the forest at breakneck speed, Sango and Miroku with Shippou were riding on Kirara and Kagome was clinging to Inuyasha's back.

After having calmed Shippou down, they each took turns asking each other questions and answering, even asking both Shippou and Kirara, who seemed to be the only ones not affected by the curse, though Shippou did point out it would probably be very funny if Kirara could say either phrase. They started picking out their next move when suddenly the curse seemed to take a turn for the worse when every other phrase that Kagome and Inuyasha would say started to come out as "_chorizo con huevo_" and "_in my pants_" respectively. Even writing down their thoughts ended up with the same result, ending when Inuyasha, in a fit, ripped the inked covered sheets to shreds (thankfully it was only three pages that Kagome pulled out to write on, and by that point she was too frustrated with their writing and speaking attempts to care.)

As they soared through the treetops, Inuyasha raised a hand to point out a figure moving below. All of them nodding, they quickly descended to find a somewhat old man, just beyond middle-aged, who was scouting ahead slightly of a somewhat small caravan. Taken by surprise, the old man started to raise his staff when Sango shouted out to let them know they were safe, stopping him in mid-movement.

"Inuyasha," called Miroku, "Are they all human or…?"

Lowering Kagome to the floor, he moved a bit past the old man and sniffed around a bit. Looking over his should at them, he nodded before heading back to the group.

"Good sir," started Miroku, "allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Miroku, a respectable houshi, the lovely lady at my side is Sango, a venerable Taijiya, and my esteemed friends Kagome-sama, a very powerful miko, and her loyal guard, Inuyasha (at this one, Inuyasha sniffed out a soft "keh", and Kagome smacked him lightly on his chest.) We would like to know if you have heard of a village around here that was recently destroyed by a demon…? Oh, and please, do not address us in the form of a question – there have been some problems with that lately…" he sighed.

The old man blinked. "If you mean by recently around, maybe, two months ago, yes, there was a village destroyed by a kitsune youkai at the foot of the mountain, over in that direction, though, I wouldn't suggest you go there."

"Why not, good sir?" Miroku queried.

"They say evil spirits lurk there, preying on hapless travelers who come across the ruins. The spirit is rumored to take the shape of a young boy of eleven who once lived there…" the old man shuddered. Blinking wearily at Miroku, he asked, "Why would you want to be going up there anyway?"

Miroku held his breath and bit at his teeth, slowly turning red in the face, while the others looked around, pretending not to notice. Finally a voice blurted out, "Just _say it_, Miroku! You can explain later!"

"_Inmypants!_" Miroku rushed the words out. Looking rather embarrassed at the man for having to say the ridiculous sounding phrase, he heard Sango mutter to him to say it again. "Sorry, well, you see, my companions and I have unfortunately been cursed by said boy, but the thing is, we had been met quite a distance from the village. My two companions had run into the boy at a clearing due east about—"

"Oh, yes, that was a place where some of the men who would travel for supplies would often stop at night. I'm sure it's mostly overgrown by now. There have been sightings of that boy there as well. Thankfully, the curses never last more than a three weeks… It's believed that this is a very weak spirit, or maybe he gets sidetracked by new victims…"

"But we can't wait that long!" came the small voice from earlier. Shippou peeked out from behind Miroku, making the whole group sigh. "We think it's catching, even Miroku and Sango, who hadn't met the boy, have started saying those weird phrases every time they're asked a question—" Shippou paused, staring as the old man took two hurried steps back and some of the younger men advanced, holding tools like weapons.

"Now, now, good gentlemen," Miroku said calmly, placatingly moving his hands in the air, as the men starting hissing darkly about kitsune. "This young one has nothing to do with the kitsune of the area. Kagome, our miko, has sort of adopted him and he would _never_ do anything naughty like that, right Shippou?" Miroku turned to look at Shippou with his "scary punk" look.

Shippou sweatdropped. "Of, of course not, Miroku, _never_ do something like that. (All of you would kill me…)"

The old man squinted at Shippou from where he was perched. "Hm, right, he's not even the right coloring for the kitsune around here, to orangey. The ones from the mountains were reddish brown and silver white."

The Inu-tachi collectively let out their breaths that they hadn't known they'd been holding.

* * *

The Inu-tachi were standing in front of a rather badly burnt gate that surrounded the burnt ruins of a village long-since destroyed. They quietly entered the eerily quiet place, chills running up and down their spines.

Shippou shivered on his perch on Kagome's shoulder. "It's-it's kinda-cr-creepy, isn't it, Kagome?" At her nod, before she felt compelled to say it aloud, he continued. "Don't worry, I'll protect you." She patted his hand, as if to say thank you.

Silently the group made their way through the village, stopping in the center where, in the middle of an impressively large crater in the shape of the paw print of a kitsune, there was a massive graveyard. Miroku stepped forward and offered a prayer for the dead buried beneath the crudely made graves, then they continued on, to the other side village where things started to grow wildly and lushly along the sides of a well-kept path. Suddenly they came upon a rather large clearing that gave off a bad vibe. It was rather beautiful – a small hut off to one side, a trickling fountain next to it of fresh spring water, vivid flowers surrounding the area, soft grass underfoot – but the darkly foreboding feeling did not disperse. There was a small sound coming off to the side and turning, they all froze.

There, kneeling by a pile of rocks, rearranging some garlands of flowers that had been placed on them, was the boy Kagome and Inuyasha had met. The boy stood up and shifted nervously on his feet, his eyes lingering on the most obviously dangerous members of the group, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sango.

Miroku stepped forward and, pausing for a moment, thinking of how to phrase his question, first asked, "Are you Daichi?"

The boy looked quietly at him for a moment before shaking his head. "No," he whispered, "And yet, yes. I am _not_ Daichi, at least, I am not the boy you think you've met, I merely look like him, but my name _is_ Daichi. The boy, the villagers called Nanashi, but I gave him a new name, Daiki, because—" and here the boy's face crumpled and tears ran down his face at an alarming rate, "—because he was _greatly valuable_ to _me_." The boy's body sagged further, his head resting against what was obviously the gravestone of his deceased friend.

Miroku stepped over to Daichi and knelt down beside him. "Please, would you lift the curse off of us? It is too much of a burden for my friends and I to bear – Kagome-sama is not even from this area, and going back like this would be much too problematic for her."

"Is not a curse," the boy cried petulantly. "It's just a prank. I wanted someone to play with and they did say they'd play…"

"But it's not very nice," Shippou chirped, peering around from behind Kagome's shoulder (he had been sitting behind her head on her backpack, and eating some chocolate as he had gotten hungry and his face was now smeared with chocolate.) "Kagome gave you some of my favorite, of our food, so you shouldn't have played such a mean trick on us."

Daichi's eyes widened. "You really had a kitsune pup?"

Kagome frowned, annoyed, and said, "_Chorizo con huevo_."

Daichi sighed. "Alright, I'll lift it," and waving his hand, a gray mist seemed to leak out of their bodies and dispersed into the air.

"Eh? Whaddya know," Kagome blinked thoughtfully then turned to look at the others. "Is it gone?"

"Yes!" Sango laughed, hugging her arms to herself. "We're back to normal!"

Kagome turned back to Daichi, who was frowning thoughtfully at Shippou.

"Didn't I tell you we had a kitsune pup with us?"

He looked at her, deadpan. "I didn't actually believe you."

"Hey kid," Inuyasha called, stepping over to Daichi. "Why'd you do that to us, anyway?"

"I've been lonely, and upset… I mean, my best friend was killed by the villagers, and then father accidentally stepped on the village when in a rush to get down there…"

The Inu-tachi sweatdropped.

"You mean," Sango asked, "It really was an accident?"

"Yes!" Daichi cried, exasperated. "Why doesn't anyone believe it? Father–" and here Daichi blushed. "–Father is brilliant, and powerful, but he's rather clumsy. He was running down to confront them and have them make amends (at least give Daiki a proper burial), but he tripped over one of his tails and tumbled down head over heels – he looked like a top! – and landed on them. A few people managed to get away, in fact, some of the villagers were out of town at the time, but many more died when Father, who had panicked accidentally let loose his _kitsune bi_."

Daichi paused for a moment then turned to look at Miroku. "Sir," he asked softly, "I know I don't have any right to ask you anything but, could you Daiki a proper burial. I did my best, but I've inherited my Father's clumsiness for these sort of things."

Miroku stared at him thoughtfully. "I can do that – but you must no longer play such "tricks" on people if you really want this resolved."

"Then what am I supposed to do!" Daichi cried. "Just forget Daiki? I can't do that! They killed him in the worst way possible! They desecrated his body! They—"

"Don't you think the people who had done that to Daiki have already paid? I mean they were stepped on and burnt to a crisp," Kagome frowned slightly. "We're not asking you to forget Daiki, in fact, we're going to help you properly honor his memory. And part of that is forgiving old grudges and moving on. Start small. Show that kitsune are no longer a threat, clear out the ruins of the village, and soon people will come back and you might be able to make more friends, okay?"

Daiki stared quietly for a moment before sighing and releasing his genjutsu. His body seemed to stretch and thin out, his eyes turned into a greenish yellow, his hair grew and turned to a dark auburn-brown, and a long tail with a silver white tip seemed to sprout out of his now silken pants. Blushing, he tugged on a pair of earrings that were in the same place as Miroku's.

"I think I'd like to make some more friends," he said softly. "It gets very lonely up here sometimes…"

* * *

It was nearing sunset when the Inu-tachi tramped down the side of the mountain. Inuyasha was still picking dirt out from under his claws, considering how much digging Daichi and Miroku had made him do. In the end, they had made quite a beautiful shrine. For an offering, Kagome pulled out another bag of Inuyasha's favorite chips (said hanyou pretended not to notice) and laid it on the smooth plate that Daichi had retrieved from the hut nearby, saying it was his favorite.

"Well, all's well that ends well, right guys?" Kagome smiled cheerily, if not rather tiredly.

"Hu, we lost a good day's search for the tama over this," grumbled Inuyasha, though he didn't sound that angrily.

"Sorry I used another bag of your favorite chips for the offering, but it was nice that you didn't put up a fuss," Kagome smiled. Inuyasha made a little sound – "keh!" – and muttered about he would never get the dirt out of under his nails, bringing his hands closer to his face to cover up the blush that started forming high on his cheekbones.

"You know, I think there should be another bag of them left…" Kagome trailed off. Inuyasha glanced over and grabbed the bag from her and started to search for the elusive chips.

"Hey, Kagome," Shippou's slightly muffled voice called from where he was riding behind them on Kirara. "What sort of game was it you were playing anyway, that made you have to say those weird things?"

"It's called '_chorizo con huevo_' – the objective of the game is just to answer every question you're asked with a straight face while saying that line," Kagome replied. She eyed Inuyasha who was mumbling about how he couldn't find the chips, and had resorted to turning the backpack on its end and dumping everything out. ("You better put it all back." "Keh.")

"Oh…" Shippou said. _Crunch_.

Inuyasha's ear swiveled in Shippou's direction and his nose twitched. He slowly turned his head to look at the small child.

Shippou blinked and his hands tightened convulsively around the bag of chips. _Inuyasha's_ favorite chips.

"_Shiiiipooouuu_," Inuyasha's face froze in scary grin. "Is that the last bag of chips?"

"Awp?" Shippou blinked and looked down at the bag before holding it out for Inuyasha to grab. "You can have the rest!"

Inuyasha slowly took the bag and looked down. His eye twitched.

"Shippou?"

"Yeah?"

"That chip you just ate…"

"Yeah?"

"It was the last chip."

"Oh?"

"You better run."

"Eek! Kagome!" Shippou jumped off Kirara away from Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha!" cried Kagome.

"What?" he paused in mid step, frowning.

She sighed. "Don't go at him full tilt."

With a cheery "keh!" Inuyasha chased Shippou around the group, well into the night.

The End

* * *

When first writing this, I wanted it to be mainly a humor piece, a simple one-shot that would've been added to the "Drive-Thru" series. In fact, the original title was: "_Chorizo con Huevo!" or "In my pants."_ Then I couldn't remember which disk I had saved the darn thing on and so I stopped writing it for a while. When I came upon it again, sometime later, I realized there was too much potential for the piece to leave it alone and, considering how I had yet to write in the part for the "curse", the idea of using some cranky old witch was tossed aside for this somewhat more fun, yet wholly more malicious idea. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have had writing it.

The ending does seem a bit trite to me, but oh well.

--

_Chorizo con huevo_ and _In my pants_ are in italics because they are not speaking Japanese. The only one of the bunch who know what both phrases mean is Kagome, as she neglected to tell any of the others, so she is the only one who gets embarrassed at the phrase "In my pants."

_Daichi_ can mean either "great first son" or "great land" in Japanese.

_Nanashi_which can be used for boys or girls, means "without name" in Japanese.

_Daiki_ can mean either "great tree" or "great shining" or "great valuable" in Japanese.

_Kitsune bi_ is, loosely translated, "foxfire," and no, I am not referring to a type of glow-in-the-dark moss.


End file.
